Canadian lugers golden

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QMI Agency

Nov 27, 2011

, Last Updated: 9:12 PM ET

Canadian lugers slid to a gold-medal showing at the World Cup Team Competition Sunday in Igls, Austra.

Alex Gough, Sam Edney and doubles racers Tristan Walker and Justin Snith finished in a combined time of two minutes, 8.774 seconds to edge out second-place Germany. Russia rounded out the podium in third place.

"The team event is about putting three quality runs together and posting a solid time. We did that and it is a sweet victory for us," Edney said. "Winning a team event shows the success of an entire program. We are growing up together as a group. People now look at Canada differently (in luge), and are realizing that we are contenders every time we participate in one of these competitions. Being on the circuit for a number of years now, that is a good feeling."

Earlier in the day, Edney finished 16th in the men's singles race with a time of 1:41.299.

MORE GOLD FOR NESBITT

Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., won her second gold medal in as many days Sunday at the World Cup speedskating stop in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Nesbitt finished first in the 1,000-metres with a time of one minute, 14.82 seconds. She won the 1,500m event on Saturday.

"I think that probably really helped," Nesbitt said. "I was just so excited to see something so fast for me. Skating under 1:15 anywhere outside of North America is really good. So I'm really, really happy with it."

Shannon Rempel of Winnipeg was 19th in the 1,000m. Thijsje Oenema of the Netherlands took the silver in 1:16.120 and Margot Boer, also of the Netherlands, won the bronze in 1:16.127.

In the men's 1,000m, Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was the top Canadian in fifth place. Jamie Gregg of Edmonton was 15th.

HARVEY, KERSHAW IN TOP 10

Canadians Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw clawed their way into the top 10 in Sunday's World Cup cross-country ski race.

Harvey, from St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., finished eighth in the 15-kilometre classic-ski pursuit race in Kuusamo, Finland, while teammate Kershaw, from Sudbury, Ont., was eighth. In the overall mini-tour standings, Harvey is 11th while Kershaw, who has gotten off to a slow start this season, is 20th.

"I needed that race really badly, it was super important for me," Kershaw said. "I was pretty down and it is hard not to freak out when things aren't going right, but I knew I had done good training and you have to maintain perspective and stay positive. It is nice to have a decent result in the top-10 and it is good confirmation for sure."

Jan Hudec finished Sunday's super-G run at the World Cup stop at Lake Louise in fourth place, just 0.1 seconds off the the podium and headlined an impressive day for the Canadian men's team that saw three of them finish in the top 30.

After a recurring back injury forced Hudec to sit out training this summer, he began skiing again only two weeks before the Lake Louise races. The Calgarian said his back's been steadily feeling better in recent days, and he entered the super-G feeling confident after a 12th-place finish in Saturday's men's downhill.

"Yesterday, I just did some good rehab and relaxed and stayed out with my family for dinner," Hudec said. "So I came here, and I knew my game plan."

Erik Guay completed an up and down week at Lake Louise with a sixth-place finish. Benjamin Thomsen, from Invermere, B.C., finished 27th, while Louis-Pierre Helie finished in 53rd.

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal finished first with a time of 1:34.47, narrowly edging out Saturday's downhill champion Didier Cuche. Frenchman Adrien Theaux finished in third place.